Four Minutes
by Scarlet Phlame
Summary: What would you do if you had four minutes left to live? (I own nothing.) Mad Hare, White Hat friendship. Will be a multichapter.
1. Waking Up

Four more minutes.

Hatter sat in her cell, intently staring at her watch. Beads of sweat began to collect on her forehead as another agonizing minute passed. She bit her lip and tore her gaze away from the glassy surface of the watch she held in her hand and focused her eyes on the ceiling.

She couldn't comprehend what had just happened. What was about to happen. Part of her still wanted to believe she was dreaming, that she would wake up and everything was going to be all right.

That was what she had always wished for. To be woken up. But the only way for her to wake up from her never-ending nightmare was death.

She was too much of a coward to kill herself. After all, she had always been told she had no right to life.

Did that mean she had no right to death, either?

Three more minutes.

She was waiting for the inevitable to come. She'd never suspected that her life would reach this moment, but it had, and who was she to protest? In their eyes, in all of their eyes, she was evil. She was the Mad Hatter.

Morris had betrayed her. She knew that now. Evil couldn't love, evil had no right to what she had felt. What she'd thought she'd felt. But now she knew the truth.

Even after what he had done to her, she still wished he were here. She wanted him to cradle her in his arms the way he always had, before. She wanted him to tell her that it was okay, that she was okay, that everything was going to be all right. She wanted him to lie to her.

And he had.

Two more minutes.

She let out a little choked cry and put her head in her hands. This was it. After all she had fought for, after all she had worked for, this was it. She was going to be executed by the Queen of Hearts any minute now. The suspense was killing her, and her breath caught in her throat.

Distraught, she ran her fingers through her hair. She was meeting her end. She was going to die here. Alone.

She had spent her whole life running ahead, trapping others in the dust from her own victory. And now, she was going to die in it.

One more minute.

She was going to die, in humiliation. In a public execution. She could already hear the crowd's cheering, it was the end of her harsh reign over the land beyond the looking glass. And it was just so ironic that this was the exact fate she had prepared for the Queen herself.

Hatter tugged at the edges of her frayed red hair and screamed for a long time, tearing away at the silky strands of red. She didn't want to die like this. She didn't want to leave without saying goodbye.

Tears were freely flowing down her face, and with much effort she tore the had off her head, roughly feeling around the edges.

Bingo.

The leather hat band she had so carefully crafted lay loosely around the edges. For a sickening moment, she scowled at the garment. What was she thinking? Was she really going to take her own life?

...Did it even matter anymore?

She tore at the rough band, ripping the seams apart from the fabric and stripping the decorative off the garment she had never failed to wear a single day for as long as she could remember.

Fingering the makeshift rope, her eyes hunted down the area for something, anything that would help her escape. Help her wake up.

She ran her fingers along the edge of one of the metal bars enclosing her inside the prison room. A smile tore its way across her lips and she looped the lasso around the edge.

Wake up.

Standing on the hard slab she had been sitting on earlier, she carelessly tossed the band around her neck.

Wake up.


	2. I Don't Blame You

"Wake up. Wake up! Hatter!"

The world washed in in distant waves of nausea, and Hatter's first instinct was to lean over and vomit over the side of the bed.

"Shit!" There was that voice again, the sound of it, well, the sound of anything causing her head to pound. She raked her fingernails on the bedcovers, and began to feel her eyes start to close again.

"Hey, I'm serious, stay awake," the voice demanded. She had drifted too far away from the world to recognize anything, and she snapped her eyes open again. Everything came out distant, fuzzy, blurry.

She could suddenly hear the sound of footsteps treading around the room. Every sound that shot into her ears felt like someone was driving a nail into her head. To put it bluntly, it really, really hurt.

"Damn it, what am I even doing," the person mumbled. Hatter's vision was able to adjust, but she still couldn't recognize the person.

"Wh- what..." Speech had never been such a difficulty for her. That was one thing she had been granted with. Her voice. It was something she was proud of, it was something she could... Control. Something she felt would never fail her, never give out on her.

The darkness in the room suddenly seemed to melt away, leaving Hatter in the room with...

F'ing God.

She nearly skyrocketed out of bed, tangling herself in the sheets as she thrashed around, trying to grab the lamp resting on the bedside table- something, ANYTHING to protect herself with. Her fingers closed around the first objet she could reach, and without thinking, she hurled the item in her hand at the person in front of her.

Jack sighed and picked up the newspaper. "Calm down, it's only me,"' he mumbled. "And if you're planning on maiming me or something, use anything but the newspaper. You aren't going to hurt me much with that thing, unless I get a papercut or my eyes start to bleed from that... Despicable headline." He tossed the rolled-up paper back on the nightstand.

"Cut the crap! What the hell are you doing in my... In my... house." Her voice had narrowed to a shallow whisper. Jack sneered at her expression.

"In case you're wondering, we're in my house." Hatter felt the blush light up her cheeks like kerosene to a match, but she viciously pretended it wasn't there.

"Why the hell am I in your house, White Knight?" She was shouting now.

"Woah, calm down, calm down. You ought to respect me a little more, considering the fact that I just saved your life," he sneered. "If I remember correctly, you were about to kill yourself."

Suddenly, it all began to weigh down on her. The wicked realization, that she had lost. After years of work, hope, lying to herself, to others, she had lost. She had nothing, now, she had lost her fiancee, her campaign, her land beyond the looking glass, her reputation... Her life. It was all gone. All of it.

She couldn't help it, she didn't care any more, she just wanted to die.

Before she knew it, fat tears had begun to roll down her cheeks. She was crying now, but not at all in a graceful manner. She knew she was a mess, and she knew she was openly displaying her emotions to her enemy, but she didn't care anymore.

Jack's gaze softened. "H-hey, I didn't mean it like that," he said hastily. He didn't know what to do now, but he felt sorry for Hatter now.

"D-don't..." Jack sighed and pulled her in for a hug. He was sort of glad that she was kind of drugged up on medicine, because it was unlikely she would remember this. More likely that she would pull away, but she didn't, and they just sat there.

"I thought you hated me," Hatter said after a long time. They both let out a nervous chuckle before Jack released her.

"I don't... I mean, we used to be friends. And then all of this happened, and I got confused... When I looked at you, I couldn't see... You. But now I can." She smiled a little and wiped a stray tear from her eye.

"I'm sorry, too. I don't think I would've killed you if I'd been thinking straight." She paused for a moment. "But I still don't want to believe it... That, in the end, Morris betrayed me." Her voice had faded away to a choked whisper, but she looked up at Jack to see shock.

"But he didn't betray you," he stuttered. "I mean, I thought he did, but-"

Jack was cut off by the sound of someone suddenly entering the room. Jack whirled around, by now, Hatter had frozen, as if someone had pressed the Pause button in the middle of a movie.

"Morris?" She whispered.

* * *

_**Um... Hi? (Hides face) DON'T KILL ME!**_

_**Ok, but you still sort of have permission too. I know, I know, I'm sorry to my Once readers, but... Yeah. No more excuses already!**_

_**I maybe might update Infinite Reality sooner... Or probably later. It was REALLY painful for me to read over that again seeing as the story is so damn corny... It's so bad, it's actually a little funny. O_O**_

_**Anyway, I might update Succumb To The Darkness later, and I'm afraid anyone reading this part other than an avid Once Upon A Time fan will have no clue what I'm talking about. And by other than an avid Once fan, I mean anyone other than Fabala Throp. Also, more Once, readers of The Past, Present, And The Future, you officially may kill me for starting a new story and not updating you guys for... What... Weeks now? ...I can see the pitchforks already. Time to hide!**_

_**Please R&R (crickets chirping) anyway, and I'll see you guys later.**_

_**And, yes, I feel like I'm mostly talking to myself as Fabala and I have posted the only stories in this FF archive so far. SOMEONE WRITE SOMETHING!**_

_**...anyway, um, R&R, and let's pretend I didn't just spaz out there.**_

_**P.S. In case you're wondering, I'm sort of definitely maybe into Morris/Hatter fanfictions now. Maybe.**_


	3. Fire paper- I mean, newspaper

"Madeline," he said, a warm smile stretching across his face. Jack nervously watched this exchange; he knew too well that this situation was going to end in any way BUT a positive way.

"I... I don't understand," she said, the words catching in her throat as if she had swallowed flypaper for words. "I... I thought..." Nothing more would come out, and she hated how she stuttered in front of him. She wanted to tell him she wanted nothing to do with him, that she hated him for what he had done to her. But to tell him that would be a lie.

Seeing him again had evoked powerful emotions that she herself could not even explain. Part of her wanted to know why he had come back for her, but she forcefully reminded herself that she didn't- that she shouldn't care. Everything came at a price, and she knew that love's price was the worst of all.

She swallowed, but the sinking feeling that had appeared in the pit of her stomach only worsened.

Morris' expression became slightly solemn, and he stared intently at her for a moment. "Madeline... Are you okay?"

Finally, the words that she had been holding in came out. "No," she said slowly. "I'm not okay. You... You betrayed me. You literally handed the Queen my execution list, and with it, my life." Tears began to brim in her eyes, and she fought to ignore the look of confusion that was spreading across her fiancée's face.

"But... I didn't betray you," he began.

"Don't lie. You don't have to lie anymore. I already know the truth."

"No. Madeline, it isn't a lie, I swear." He sighed. "Just hear me out."

Madeline would've protested, but she couldn't seem to force any more words out of her mouth. Morris took her silence as agreement, so he continued.

"The plan was to... Well, I wasn't really trying to get her to execute you, honest. I mean..." He sighed again. "Listen. When I have Jack the execution list, we'd already formed a plan. He would give the list to the Queen, who would want you executed immediately. When she was preparing your execution, everyone knows thats the one time she's without her security. So I decided to use the opportunity to kill her while she was defenseless." Hatter closed her eyes.

"So, basically, you're telling me that you had a plan to kill the Queen all along with one of my biggest enemies- frienemies," she corrected, upon receiving a scathing glare from Jack. "And you didn't tell me a single word of this?" Morris' gaze fell to the floor.

"I'm sorry. I should've told you. I was just... I was just..."

"A coward?" Hatter interjected. "Because if that's what you were going to say, then I agree. Because that's exactly what you are. Did the thought ever occur to you that, say, if the Queen chose to banish me instead of executing me, I would probably end up dead?" Her voice sounded sour as she spoke, it was a tone she only ever used when she was exceedingly annoyed at someone.

"Here," Jack said, wordlessly tossing the newspaper at Hatter. The front page read in bold headlines:

DEATH OF THE QUEEN OF HEARTS: WONDERLAND CITIZENS REJOICE

Hatter fumbled for words as she tossed the paper away, which very unceremoniously floated back onto Jack's lap. "B-but... I still can't believe you left me alone, here, with him," she said, making a motion towards Jack. "I mean, how did you know he wasn't going to kill me for what I almost did to Alice?" Morris rolled his eyes.

"He's a Boy Scout. He wouldn't hurt a fly. But... That isn't the point. The point is... I'm sorry. Truly. I just... I didn't want to make you worry. And I didn't know how to tell you.." He put his hand on hers, but, surprisingly, she didn't pull away. She just sat there, on the bed, staring blankly at nothing in particular, trying to ignore the years pooling in her eyes.

"There's a million apologies I could utter... But none would account to how bad I feel for hurting you. I would never intentionally do that to you." He sucked in a breath. "I guess... After one lies so much, they start to lie to themselves, and those are the worst kind of lies... Ones that you repeat often enough so much that you believe they're the truth."

Madeline pulled him in for a hug, she didn't need words to express what she felt. She knew he would already know what she wanted to say.

"Guys, I'm still here," Jack said. Madeline laughed and wiped the tears from her eyes. Morris released her, but when she looked into his eyes, she saw a look of... Was it really regret? The look didn't last long, though.

"Wait," he said, slowly turning to Jack. "I thought you..." Morris sighed. "Please don't tell me you were planning on using that as firewood in here, or something," he said, making a motion towards the newspaper. "I told you to show that to Madeline." Jack vigorously shook his head.

"No! I wasn't planning on setting it on fire, honest!" Morris raised an eyebrow.

"You seemed pretty set on doing so when we got stranded in the woods that one time."

"Well... It wasn't my fault that I gave the Queen the execution list which aggravated her to want to try to kill you, Hatter, and also probably definitely maybe me," Jack shot back, before pausing. "That doesn't sound right at all, does it?" He asked miserably. Hatter fought to stifle a giggle.

* * *

_**This may or may not have been caffeine-induced... Probably leaning towards a "may" due to the outright silly humor, but... Oh well.**_

_**Review... please? The review box is hungry and needs letters/reviews/words... To... Eat? **_

_**Yep- definitely caffeine-induced.**_


	4. Moving On

A few days had flown by. Hatter wasn't quite sure where to go from here, though.

She'd always suspected that once the Queen had died, then she would... Just be happy. She'd always felt that if she had control over those around her, she'd have control over her own life.

But the problem was that it hadn't- she knew she hadn't killed the Queen herself. She knew that she wasn't in a position fit to overcome the throne.

"I know this isn't how you wanted things to go," Morris told her. "But you have to learn how to move on."

"But... you don't understand. She's dead... and I just feel... so empty." he put his hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

"I know what you mean. But..." he stared off into the distance. "You know, I never thought things would end up this way." She nodded.

"I just... I just wanted to be happy. After all the terrible things I've done... I don't know if I believe that I deserve this ending." she sighed.

"You worked hard enough for it," Morris told her. "I know that it's hard to believe... but I think you do deserve this ending."

"You really believe it?" he shook his head.

"No... I don't believe it. I know it."

* * *

_**THE END!**_

_**I can hear applause, lol. Oh well, I shouldn't write things as 2:00 in the morning anyway... this was super weird, corny, crappy, badly-written- well, just the whole lot of it, but... um... review? XD You're completely welcome to tell me how random and weird this entry was. -_-'**_

_**And since when did I ship Mad Hare...? Lol. I need to see a psychiatrist. Preferably Doctor Hopper.**_


End file.
